


exclusion zone

by waspfactor



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Angst, Canonical Child Abuse, Character Study, Gen, Hero Complex, Implied/Referenced Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:54:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27527233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/waspfactor/pseuds/waspfactor
Summary: they're sitting next to each other, breathing the same air. gakushuu's hand is intertwined with his own, limbs amalgamated as one. he thinks he's got him figured out and then he sees the locked door in gakushuu's mind- access denied.(or the asanos, as seen through the looking glass)
Relationships: Akabane Karma & Asano Gakushuu, Asano Gakuhou & Asano Gakushuu
Comments: 3
Kudos: 79
Collections: Asano Gakushuu Centric





	exclusion zone

**Author's Note:**

> this is heavily inspired by 'STRIKE 3' by ferry on yt!! i love vocaloid n all of ferry's songs itch the 'slavic aesthetic' that resides deep within my rotting brain. defo check it out!!! 
> 
> this time... karma gets the character study as well as the asano's.... look under your chair, dear reader, cos YOU get a character study too..

High school is a steeper slope than Karma had anticipated. His challenge is not academics, never has been. It comes in the form of ginger, perfectionist, analytical Gakushuu Asano, who pulls him aside before the start of the year and tells him that just because the principal isn’t breathing down his neck, doesn’t mean he can just start slacking.

Karma knows Gakushuu better than Gakushuu thinks he does; he’s not telling Karma to not slack off, he’s telling him to keep up the competition. Karma inwardly rolls his eyes- the whole reason he came to this school was to keep up the competition the two of them cultivated in junior high.

Karma sits at the back of class 1-A, spends most lessons with his eyes trained on Gakushuu. The teachers notice it, how could they not but keep quiet. Karma’s convinced his regular Asano-watch is subtle enough to not be noticed by any of their peers (who should be attending to the redox equations at hand, thank you very much). Karma finds out that, ah, maybe subtlety isn’t one of his strong points; one of the Virtuoso’s corners him about into the 3rd week of class.

“I’ve seen you staring in class. What’s your endgame here, Akabane?”

“Nothing,” He shrugs because it _is_ nothing. He’s at the back of the class, Gakushuu’s at the front. He sticks out like a sore thumb amidst the browns and blacks and blondes of the class. Maybe, Karma can’t help but stare at him. “Just keeping an eye on Asano.”

They raise their eyebrow and walk away, leaving Akabane alone with his thoughts. He decides to dial it back a little on the staring, resorts to, what he’d describe, as brief glances that sometimes linger for too long.

He works up the courage to slip Gakushuu his number, awfully cliché, he knows. He scribbles ‘just in case’ under the digits and slides it into Gakushuu’s locker, walks away as from the locker as if it’s the scene of a crime.

That day, Asano waits by the school gate for him, a slip of paper between his slender fingers. “You couldn’t have given me this in person?” He holds it up. It’s opened.

Karma knows better than to try and lie to Asano. “I wasn’t sure you’d take it if I’d given it to you.”

“Idiot,” Gakushuu begins to walk away but his pace is slower than usual. An invitation. “As if I’d cut off all communication with my rival.”

Gakushuu spends that night at his house, neither of them mention it. Gakushuu narrows his eyes when Karma offers the double bed ( ~~his parent’s bed~~ ) but accepts it. When Karma wakes up, Gakushuu is making breakfast, hair already combed down. “Sunnyside up or scrambled?”

“Make yourself at home.” Karma says but there’s no venom behind it. It’s been a long time since he’s woken up with company.

Gakushuu lets a small smile tug at his lips. “Sunnyside up it is.”

The principal pulls outside his house as Karma’s finishing his breakfast. Asano has already got his bags together as the principal walks up to the front door. “Asano, Akabane.” He looks a lot less tired- perhaps becoming an international disgrace to teachers and parents everywhere lets you catch up on sleep.

Gakushuu nods at Karma and then leaves. Unspoken words hang in the air. Karma’s left wondering when they’ll talk about it.

Two weeks after that, Gakushuu shows up unannounced at 11pm. Karma doesn’t expect the other to have a suitcase, for his eyes to be so empty and vast, like a never-ending geode of amethyst.

They don’t speak about it, don’t speak about Gakushuu’s twitchiness, the tone in his voice. Karma wants to but he’s a coward, always has been, always will be. He keeps quiet, chewing the inside of his lip till he tastes blood.

This is a cruel game to be trapped in, Karma thinks. If he pushes too hard, he loses Gakushuu forever. Push too little and… well, he flies under the radar and Karma loses him too. He’s been pushed too hard before, shoved Nagisa out before he could see right through him. And he’s been pushed too little, to the point where he’s not even an after-thought (he wonders when the last time his parents thought about him was).

They're sitting next to each other, breathing the same air, basking in the moon’s glow. Gakushuu’s hand is intertwined with his own, limbs amalgamated as one. He thinks he's got him figured out, knows the tune Gakushuu’s dancing too and then he sees the steel door in Gakushuu’s mind- access denied.

After the break, he comes into the second semester more worried than he was already. Gakushuu is all smiles, too polite, too perfect, a doll on the mantlepiece- only there for looking at, no touching! He approaches the other Virtuoso’s when Gakushuu is off being a perfect role model somewhere else.

“What happened?”

“We don’t know… We were hoping you knew…”

Karma resorts to his people watching again, keeps his gaze on Gakushuu as if he’d die if he didn’t. Gakushuu can’t wither away if people are watching; Karma vows to keep an eye on him.

The next time Gakushuu comes to stay over, he has to step aside on the garden path. Two adults, one a fiery ginger and the other a dirty blonde, walk past him, holding luggage. They don’t say anything to him. Karma can’t mask the look on his face and Gakushuu doesn’t mention it. Karma almost wishes he did.

The week the principal visits is the worst. It’s not even his father and Karma finds himself sliding around on eggshells, finds himself caught up in Asano senior’s marionette performance. He cuts the strings himself, too long a puppet in someone else’s game, punches the guy in the face.

The principal doesn’t go down, stumbling back a little. There’s thunder in his eyes and Karma braces for the lightning to strike but it never comes. He see Gakushuu look horrified from behind the principal and Karma realises too late that he _really_ shouldn’t have done that.

Gakushuu starts leaving his messages on read- Karma won’t lie, that hurt. He comes to class, no longer wearing his mask of smiles. He looks like shit, acts like shit, and probably feels like shit too. He speaks to the Virtuoso’s and faculty only. Won’t even look at Karma.

There’s only so much he can take. He breaks down to Nagisa one night, his vision blurs behind hot tears, shame warms his face.

Nagisa, hair short and eyes bright, rubs at his back soothingly. Karma feels selfish. “It’s not your responsibility to save him. If it results in you drowning, you can’t risk your own life, saving his.”

Karma’s voice breaks. “But it’s my responsibility to try.”

And by god, he _tries._ He gives it more energy than anything he’s ever did before, lets anything and everything fuel him. Nagisa, the rest of E Class, his own pressure. He won’t let Gakushuu continue this game anymore, won’t let him play roulette with the fully loaded pistol anymore, won’t let him lose himself to a game he had no control in. Karma realises, too late and too sourly, that Gakushuu is nothing but a pawn in someone else’s game.

It all comes to a climax, as Karma is holding on to Gakushuu’s arm. They’re on the roof, school uniforms crinkled.

Gakushuu looks blankly at him. “Let me go, Karma.” He says his first name softly.

“No.”

And then, like that, they’re falling, and Karma realises too late that this might be the end of everything he’s known, no more school, no more Nagisa, no more Gakushuu.

He closes his eyes, lets the wind whip his body and embraces oblivion.

It never comes.

**Author's Note:**

> i think most karma/gakushuu post canon fics would be....sad. both have a lot to work through- especially karma. one day i will do an in depth karma character study fic...
> 
> i’m wasp-factor on tumblr pls come yell at me abt stuff....
> 
> lmk if u enjoyed it :'))


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